Saturday, March 25, 2017

A new book by Marleen Decree was presented last night February 24th in Gallery The Black Panter.
The whole chapel was packed. I was a bit late and only had a seat on the first row...
The sequence of such presentations is always the same: There is the person who does the introduction: Johan van Cauwennberghe introduced the book Erbarme Dich, as always a smart analysis of the poetry at hand. Also we got some insights about what had inspired Marleen: This time Marleen had fallen in love with the photographs by Mirjam Devriendt of the sculptures by Hilde De Bruyckere. So she wrote a series of poems inspired by these photographs. As always there was wonderful music on a huge but sensitive Theorbe... performed by Floris De Rycker. The people showed up... the room was filled by her admirors and friends. Marleen read a few of her poems. I was a bit sick, so I skipped the fun early. Also not to pass on my bad cough. Her publisher Leo Peeraer gave the first copies to Marleen and Floris and Adriaan.

I gave her my texts of Blaise Cendrars and am curious as to what she will be doing with it... since they are leaving for their stay in France...

Sunday, March 19, 2017

My neighbor is 83. She is also forgetful and lonely. So since I am closest to her, she drops in, comes by and walks in the city, probably finding some friends. She also eats out a lot. She enjoys being among people and dislikes having to eat on her own. So tonight I'll share my sturdy lentil soup with her. Some people you get to know, you learn how they tick, what their issues are. For Lucy, it is mainly loneliness, a daughter in cape town, a son in Los Angeles. For her age she is well groomed and good looking. Another neighbor is heavily invested in the local church. Another one, a man has the weirdest collections: angels, teddy bears, printing letters... He keeps the spot immaculate. And then there are the noisy neighbors...